The Dream
by Pine-Tree-Forest
Summary: Harry, plagued by guilt over the death Cedric Diggory finds that adventure is always just a step away. And love, lives by the Forest of Dean.
1. Chapter 1

CH * ONE – The Dream

"Cedric?" Harry looked aghast, he had been here before. The night was moonless. Feral red and green lights streaked across the cloud cover like cracks in concrete. Nonplussed by his new surroundings harry sat up. He felt it straight away, the front of his shirt clung to him as if he had just left a pool. The heat coming from the liquid startled him, it was a cool night and he laid in a mess of warm water, he didn-

"CEDRIC! CEDRIC?" Realisation struck harry like a lightning. Now on his feet, he was already pulling his wand from his pocket. "LUMOS" He shouted but no light came. Not here. As he scrambled forward in the dark his feet met a wet thump throwing him off balance and leaving him in a knot on the floor. Regaining a sense of orientation his hands began fumbling across a mess of wet robes. Through the dim luminescence of the sky, harry could not recognise the boy before him.

" _AVADA KEDARVA!"_

A bolt of green light shot across the graveyard from his left, but Harry's eyes never left Cedric.

Harry woke in a fright. Covered in sweat with an all too familiar sticky feeling lingering on his shirt. He searched his nightstand for his glasses as his eyes darted around his room putting names to blurry objects. Once he had his glasses on he looked out his window over the Dursley's backyard. It was hardly light out, Hedwig hadn't returned from her hunt yet.

Harry's heart was still racing out of his chest. He could still feel the thick metallic liquid stained on his skin. He closed his eyes once more willing his heart to slow as he slowly pulled himself back out of his own head.

After a while Harry decided that he would go have a shower and wash away the feeling of death that he had woken up with.

Harry felt exhausted, and seeing himself in the mirror he realised he didn't look much better. After entering the bathroom, he quietly closed the door behind him. "Muffliato" Harry whispered, pointing his wand at the bathroom door. Before harry was even on the train home, Dumbledore had convinced the Ministry to lower the age of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery to help protect children against Voldermort. As long as you were 14 and enrolled in a registered school of magic within the UK, you were free of the restriction. Harry, much like everyone else, was pleased with this.

As harry stood in the shower he found himself falling deep within his own thoughts. ' _Cedric was dead. It was my fault. He told me to take the cup, I didn't. I made him come with me._ '

Harry wasn't sure what day it was, but it had been around 2 weeks since Cedric died. He had not had a good week with the Dursley's since returning, on the first night back he had the same reoccurring nightmare and awoke screaming in his unfamiliar surroundings. Vernon came and nearly strangled the poor boy to death thinking it was some ' _funny business'_.

Thinking to himself in the shower harry decided. It was time for a change, he didn't want to stay here anymore. He was sick of being locked away, no one had even written him to ask if he was okay since returning to the Dursley's. Harry more than anything, was lonely.

After getting dressed in his room he began to write a letter to Sirius.

 _Dear Sirius_

 _I hope you're doing well, I'm sorry I haven't been allowed to come and stay with you over the summer. Trust me, I wanted to. I'm not really doing too well Sirius, I can't sleep, I can't eat, I don't even what day it is. I don't really know how to say this but, I'm leaving. I think I just need to get away for a while clear my head or something._

Harry wrote each word with finality. Confirming these actions were now not only in his head, this was happening.

 _I can't tell you where I will be going because I don't know. You won't be able to find me under my cloak either so please don't send after me, if I need help I will ask for it. I will be back before school starts and I will try to not to cause too much trouble whilst I am away._

 _I hope you can understand where I am coming from, if anyone can it's you._

 _Much love_

 _Harry_

Harry took the letter and put it in his left breast pocket of his flannel shirt. He pulled his trunk from under his bed and began to fill a backpack. He packed his only other pair of jeans and a spare shirt. he decided to save space by wearing his jacket, he didn't know any expansion spells yet. He made a mental note to ask Hermione when he saw her next.

"Hermione!" Harry startled himself with his own words. He knew that would be the perfect place to hide and keep away from Dumbledore and Sirius. If he stayed at the Burrow or the Leaky Cauldron then they would surely find him and send him back. ' _No, this is perfect. I could get a tent from Diagon Ally and camp in the forest so Hermione's parents won't know I am there._ ' Harry thought.

Harry continued to pack as his brain exploded with the first happy thoughts to flow through it since he'd come back. It was easy to find excuses to go see someone you miss when you're alone.

As harry placed the last of his possessions he was bringing into his backpack. Hedwig flew through his open window, landing on her perch. Harry hurried over to her and quickly tied the note to her leg.

"Hedwig, I need you to deliver this to Sirius but not right now okay? I want you to do it in a few hours and then fly to Hermione's, okay?"

Hedwig nibbled on his finger in affirmation and continued to sit perched in her cage. Harry hoped she understood and turned back to his open trunk laying on his bed. Leaving his trunk behind isn't ideal but he knew he had nearly all the important stuff with him. Still, he searched through his charms book for something that might help. After flicking through the index Harry found a chapter titled ' _Disillusionment Charms_ ' and with a flick of his wand his trunk became invisible. After placing it under the back corner of his bed he sheathed his wand and began collecting his things.

The weather today was overcast with rain coming and going as it pleased. ' _Typical'_ Harry thought, he knew it was a long walk to the Leaky Cauldron. Even still he was excited about where this adventure might take him, how Hermione would react to him turning up on her door step, if she would want to spend time with him over the holidays, maybe go on some adventures with him?

As he stood at the bottom of the stairs he wondered for a moment about leaving a note for the Dursley's but he figured the less they knew the better, maybe they would think he died and can have a nice relaxing holiday without him.

With wand in hand and his backpack on harry threw his invisibility cloak over his shoulders and began his journey.

 _Authors note - I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The second chapter will be out quite soon, all questions and feedback are welcome. I sometimes find the romance stories move too quickly so this will have a strong plot to keep it at bay. Also there will be no major character bashing I never quite understood the reasoning behind it. I hope you enjoy how i write Harry's internal conflict over Cedric and the relationship with Hermione. It will be super innocent and hopefully truthful to the characters. x_


	2. Chapter 2

CH * TWO

The cool gusts of wind hit harry like ocean waves, chilling his bones to the marrow. His skin stood on end as he shut the door behind him and for the first time in quite a while harry felt free.

' _There will be a guard here."_ Harry thought looking up and down the street, and after walking a short way he found just that. A man standing on the corner of Privet Drive wearing his pants backwards with his jumper tucked into them trying to remain inconspicuous. Well, as much as he could. ' _Not exactly the queens guard, is it?'_ harry thought as he slinked his way past his oblivious protector.

It took harry just under two uneventful hours of relatively clear weather to make it to the Leaky Cauldron, and another ten minutes to wait for someone to open the door so he could slip inside unnoticed. Harry was aware that he needed to be in and out of Diagon Ally relatively quickly as Sirius could be receiving his letter any second and if his previous luck told him anything, it was to hurry.

Harry wore his invisibility cloak all the way up to the doors of Gringotts. Constantly checking over his shoulder and nearly stunning a rather senile old wizard at the banging of a door. He decided it would be best to remove his cloak to not raise any alarms within the bank and draw further attention to himself. ' _As if it would make a difference'_ Harry mocked.

Once inside harry kept his head low and headed to the first available till. The Goblin, not bothering to look up simply stated ' _Name?_ '. Not wanting to draw any attention to himself Harry simply held his key forward and waited anxiously for the goblin to make eye contact with him.

Harry was rushed into cave like backroom harbouring several carts to take him to his vault. Once there he hurried to shove handfuls of Galleons into his backpack and then discovering how little damage he was doing to his savings, decided to fill his pockets for good measure. Once in the lobby, with a notable _'clinking'_ and ' _clanking'_ sound as he walked, he stopped only to exchange some Galleons to Pounds for his trip.

Harry only had to make one more stop before he could leave Diagon Ally and inspired by his recent lodgings at the Quidditch World Cup he soon had his not so standard two-man tent hanging from his shoulder with his pockets now 11 galleons lighter.

Hurrying back to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry, focused on holding his pockets tightly to muffle the sound of galleons fighting within, met a wall of laughing children hurrying his way. With no time to sweep around them, Harry quickly darted down a side street on his left burying his back against the wall. Turning his head, he watched the children appear at the mouth of the alley. They laughed as they sent mini fireworks exploding with the faintest bangs, screaming with glee the children disappeared across the opening once more.

Staring blankly at the gape harry waited for something to happen; for someone to have noticed him fleeing, but nothing did. After thirty seconds of holding his breath harry finally released the ball of air inside of him allowing his breathing to relax. Turning to examine the small alley way, Harry noticed rubbish bins littered along the claustrophobic walls and the pathway soon spiralled into darkness. Harry stared blankly searching for animacy within the unmoving darkness. Satisfied with his isolation he began to move his eyes away from eerie scene when he saw it. A mess of black fabric sprawled within the darkness of the pathway.

' _Take the cup harry'_ The words seemly appeared in his head as though not heard, but forced upon him.

 _'_ _Please take the cup.'_ It was Cedric. He was crying, weeping as though harry held a blade to his throat.

' _please harry I don't want to go there. Please, Harry, take it.'_ Harry's words clung to his throat as the boy pleaded. This isn't real. Cedric's dead.

' _HARRY TAKE THE CUP'_ Harry screamed tearing his eyes away from the fabric laying from the floor. Leaving his voice reverberating through the streets of Diagon Ally Harry disappeared as curious eyes searched the side street and found nothing they could see.

Once out in the muggle streets harry started running, not caring if his cloak lifted with his strides. Not knowing where, harry ran until his feet pleaded for mercy and his lungs burned liquid fire. Tumbling down an abandoned side street harry ripped off his cloak and crumbled to his knees. His hands cradling his face, hardly hovering his head above the ground harry cried. Tears flooded his hands and his soft sobs were only interrupted by the distant sounds of engines flowing along roads.

Harry seemingly cried his demons to sleep, his face a mess of blotchy red he decided it was time to get up. As he unwrenched his stomach allowing the blood to fall from his head he noticed a small fortified section of weeds breaking through the pavement to his left, Harry smiled wearily and ran his fingers through the tiny forest as tears streaked down his face.

 _'"_ _It's by the forest of dean" Hermione said beaming._

 _"_ _The what?" Harry replied, his head still in his transfiguration book."_

 _"_ _The forest of dean, harry." Repeated Hermione._

 _"_ _You live by a forest?" Asked harry quizzically._

 _"_ _Yes I live by a forest! It's not that weird you know."_

 _"_ _It's a little weird." Remarked Ron_

 _"_ _Yeah, a little weird."_ Agreed Harry through a smile.

 _"_ _Oh whatever." Was all Hermione could manage to say without laughing._

Harry sat for most of the day by his tiny forest. In the back of his mind he could hear Hermione talking to him and of course she was cranky. ' _Why are you so dirty harry you look god awful?' 'And you didn't think to send me a letter before running off and nearly getting yourself killed?'_ He was scared that if he left, she would to.

 _Authors note: Hopefully this chapter wasn't too lethargic. unfortunately it was unavoidable. I tried to split it into 3 acts: 1) Diagon 2) Cedric 3) Hermione, to help break it up. I wonder if any writers will be able to pick up the directional symbolism I used, Harry meets memories of his past on his left. i think its more fun than important hahah but if you can tell me why I will be impressed (It has to do with the reader not the character). The writing/editing for this chapter really took it out of me so i am going to take my time and write a longer, fuller chapter next hopefully you understand. Any feedback would be great, Hermione will be here next chapter. x_


End file.
